Friends, Paladins, Altean diplomats! Please be aware that the following is a recap of season 2 episode 4 of Voltron: Legendary Defender, entitled “Greening the Cube.” Please be on the lookout for spoilers, because that’s all there is. You’ve been warned!

The first season of Voltron: Legendary Defender hinted at there being uptapped power and potential in each of the five lions that our new paladins had yet to discover. So far in season two, we’re seeing that potential start to show up a little. We’ve already seen Lance’s Blue Lion exhibit fierce ice powers, and in episode four, “Greening the Cube,” we saw Pidge’s Green Lion get a chance to be something more. Blue Lion equals ice, so guess what Green Lion equals…

The episode began with the paladins on the exterior of Castle Ship making repairs. Despite Hunk’s mechanical prowess, he doesn’t quite know how to decipher Altean writing, so Pidge has to do it. Pidge has established herself as the technological whiz of the group, and made mention here that that’s kind of all she knows. Oh Pidge of little self-faith. While on the exterior of the ship, the paladin were surrounded by squishy bio-luminescent pulsing things. Naturally, the crew started throwing them at each other like snowballs, but Pidge figured out they were spores carrying a distress signal emanating from a forest planet.

Coran shared that the people on that planet were the universe’s best engineers, creating a cool little box that can replicate sounds and voices. Pidge was in complete awe of this device and was eager to meet the race who built it. When the crew got to the planet, though, they learned that these great engineers were forced to move to the forest to escape a Galra occupation which had kidnapped the beloved king and threatened to kill him if engineers did not create a giant weapon to defeat Voltron. The leader of the tree people explains to Pidge–who is fairly averse to nature–that nature’s designs are far more complex than any an engineer could come up with. They can commune with both technology and organics and create weapons out of trees. The leader asks Pidge to try it, and it turns out she’s a natural!

But first things first; they gotta get the king back. The paladins piled into the Green Lion, which has stealth capabilities, and the four other pilots infiltrated the Galra facility. However, when the got to the king’s “cell,” they discovered him sitting on a recliner watching a movie. After making their presence known, the king immediately called security. See, he’d made a deal with the Galra invaders for a luxurious life in exchange for helping propagate the lie which forces the citizens to help build the weapon. Dastardly coward, that king. The Galra security force was about to execute all four paladins plus the king when Pidge laser-beamed the wall in the Green Lion and rescued them.

Bad news now, though, was that the Galra forces had their cube weapon ready to go and didn’t need the slaves anymore. The commander believed he could win points with Lord Zarkon by handing over the cube weapon AND the Lions in one fell swoop. The paladins formed Voltron, but the firepower had no effect on the giant cube, as it simply returned the blasts, a form of the same repeating cube Coran had. They used the sword on it, but it just split unto four smaller but equally powerful cubes. Voltron split back into Lions and it was up to Pidge to use her newfound nature-communing skills; she and the Green Lion became super-connected and zapped each cube which caused a massive plant to grow out of it, destroying the internal workings.

The paladins left the planet of the forest people after they affirmed allegiance in the fight against Zarkon, but no sooner had they returned to the Castle Ship than the entire Galra fleet came out of hyperspace around them! CLIFFHANGER!

“Greening the Cube” was an interesting episode about the power connecting nature and technology and gave Pidge another chance to shine. She’s fast become one of my favorite characters on the show, and Bex Taylor-Klaus as always gives a brilliant vocal performance.

Share your thoughts on “Greening the Cube” in the comments below!

Images: DreamWorks/Netflix

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!